Shoulder Blade Pain – Expert Advice For Fast Relief

Have you started to get nagging shoulder blade pain, or began to experience stiffness and tension in your neck?

Perhaps you notice this when you are reaching up when you are doing housework, throwing a ball for the dogs, and picking up the grandchildren?

In our clinics in Rancho Cucamonga CA, we saw a dramatic rise in patients visiting us with shoulder blade pain after the various lockdowns caused by the pandemic.

With our lives returning back to normality, we are still seeing a lot of patients visiting us with shoulder and neck problems, and this blog article is packed with helpful tips and expert advice to enable you to relieve shoulder blade pain and return to the activities you love and live a pain-free life.

Shoulder Blade Pain

When we talk about shoulder blade pain, this typically appears as aches across the upper back; starting at the bottom of the rib cage up to the top of the shoulders, and sometimes into the neck and base of the skull.

If issues with your shoulder blades are severe, the pain in your neck can lead to frequent and severe headaches.

Some people might experience right shoulder blade pain, left shoulder blade pain, or it may affect both. If you notice only one side is painful, then this could indicate that you have some imbalances which is creating pressure and stress on just one side of your shoulder.

What Causes Pain Between Shoulder Blades

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Form & Function Physical Therapy (@formfunctionpt)

Trevor, one of our experts on the team, explains how working from home, long durations of driving and/or excessive sitting can lead to pain between the shoulder blades.

The reason is that leaning over a desk, or driving for long periods of time mean that your upper body is hunched over, and often stuck in that position for hours at a time.

As a result, this puts pressure on the muscles which connect to the shoulder blade, and causes discomfort or pain in the shoulder joint when raising the arm above the head, or reaching behind.

How To Relieve Shoulder Blade Pain

To relieve shoulder blade pain, you don’t have to resort to painkillers or simply put up with it.

There are several natural, yet powerful ways to ease pain such as:

Using ice packs (or a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel) on the affected area for a period of 15 minutes at a time, before allowing the skin to return back to normal temperature before repeating.
Using heat packs (or hot water bottle) on the affected area for a period of 15 minutes at a time, before allowing the skin to return back to normal temperature before repeating.
Keeping active and avoid long periods of inactivity (which leads to muscles become tight, and joints becoming stiff)
Relevant exercises to help mobilize the shoulder joint

Simple Exercise To Help Shoulder Blade Pain

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLXZA_5gcIH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Form & Function Physical Therapy (@formfunctionpt)

For people who sit for long periods of time, either at a desk, or when driving, performing shoulder circles as demonstrated in the video above can be an effective way to avoid muscles becoming overworked, and discomfort setting in.

To perform shoulder circles:

Raise the shoulders up
Squeeze the shoulder blades back together in the center of your upper back
Hold for 5 seconds
Slowly lower the shoulders
Repeat for around 1 minute before resting

This exercise works the muscles between the rib cage and the spine which when strong allow proper movement of the shoulder and takes the pressure of the shoulder joint. By doing this it reduces the risk of nipping nerves which is a major cause of pain.

To avoid pain returning, try to minimize hunching over and bring your shoulder back, and down.

Natural Ways To Ease Shoulder Blade Pain

Due to the increasing long waiting lists for in-network insurance physical therapy clinics, more and more people are putting their faith in private PT clinics to ease their muscle pain, and get back to doing the things that they love; whether that’s returning to the baseball field, being able to get back to their favorite exercise classes, or simply being able to enjoy weekend activities with their family.

However, we know that there are still some people unsure whether a hands-on physical therapy clinic is going to be the right option for them, and confused as to how it even works.

To help people, potentially like you, who want to end their shoulder and neck pain so they can sleep better, feel happier and make the most of their free time with their loved ones…

We offer $35 discovery visit consultations which give you the opportunity to find out more about how we can help you.

So if you are:

Confused about how to end your shoulder and neck pain
Worried that it will never get better and you’ll always struggle to get a great night’s sleep
Frustrated that your doctor’s only advice was to rest and see what it’s like in six weeks
Annoyed that you’ll need to rely on painkillers to suppress regular headaches that wreck your weekend plans

With our clinic in Rancho Cucamonga, we are ready and waiting to help the great people of the Inland Empire, so get in contact today!

Click the link below to arrange your $35 Discovery Visit or free phone consultation with one of our friendly, and knowledgeable team members who can remove all your confusion, anxiety and give you optimism that you can get better.

Start Your Journey To A More Active, Pain-Free Live With A Free Phone Consultation

Other Free Resources

Download Your Free Report NowNeck Pain Book

Or if you want to read our other blog posts, click HERE to visit the Blog Page.

Finally, if you already feel like you have enough information, but you just can’t seem to solve your neck problems, and you are tired of the constant headaches, and ruined sleep, then click HERE to request a $35 Discovery Visit with one of our expert physical therapists.

And if you are ready to find out a little bit more about us…